The court refused to accept exemption from personal appearance of the accused Shrinath Prabhala, Creative Director of UTV Software Communication Ltd, and directed him to appear before it on February 25.
His lawyer, Arvind Kumar, had earlier filed an application seeking exemption from his personal appearance, saying his client could not appear in the court due to urgent business work and sought two weeks time to appear.
The court, however, considering his plea, did not issue a warrant against him and issued summon instead, sources said.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jyotsana Singh had on January 20 issued summons to Rakhi Sawant, host of reality show 'Rakhi ka Insaaf', and seven others in a defamation case and directed them to appear before it on February 10.
Singh had issued summons after taking cognisance of a complaint filed by Narendra Singh in November last year, claiming that his wife Sunita Singh was wrongly shown as married to someone else on the show.
Narendra had filed charges of defamation, obscenity and indecent representation of a woman, among others.
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